In the high -risk career for the Domain of AI, Google's Deepmind division is adjusting its control over talent, which forces some employees to sit down from the industry for up to a year if they leave.
According to multiple reports and former employees, Deepmind, Google's research laboratory, is using non -competitive aggressive clauses to block staff, especially those who work in key projects such as the Gemini AI model, from joining rivals such as OpenAi or Microsoft for months after quitting smoking. Some higher -level researchers are subject to a full year of “garden license”, during which they are prohibited from assuming other roles.
“That's forever in AI”
A six -month pause or a year can kill the career impulse of a researcher in a field where advances occur frequently. “Who wants to sign it to start in a year?” A former Deepmind employee told Business Insider. “That is forever in AI.”
The problem exploded publicly last month when Nando de Freitas, a former Deepmind director who now leads AI in Microsoft, published in X that receives weekly messages from Deepmind employees “in despair” on these contracts.
“Estimated @googdeepmind Ers, first, congratulations on the new impressive models. Every week, one of you contacts me with despair to ask me how to escape your periods of notification and non -competitors. It also asks me for a job because your manager has explained that this is the way to be promoted, but I say,” he wrote of Freitas. He added: “No American corporation should have so much power, especially in Europe,” calling into practice an “abuse of power.”
He urged employees to go back internally and, above all, “do not sign these contracts.”
Google defense: “It's standard”
Google said he is playing next to the book. “Our employment contracts are in line with the market standards,” said a Google spokesman to Business Insider in a statement. “Given the sensitive nature of our work, we use non -competitors selectively to protect our legitimate interests.”
But critics argue that what could be “standard” does not do it fair, especially in an industry where being a few months ahead can change the game.
A legal gray area
The legality of non -competitors varies widely. In California, where many technological giants are based, including Google, such clauses are not executable. In 2023, the State extended its prohibition to cover the agreements made in other places. But Deepmind is based in the United Kingdom, where non -competitors are legal if they are considered “reasonable.”
This legal discrepancy has left some researchers from the United Kingdom considering California movements as an alternative solution. The talent wars of AI are only warming up, and Deepmind's approach could be a sign of what is to come. As an elite AI talents demand, companies are taking each lever: advantages, payment, prestige and, increasingly, paperwork.
If this strategy helps Google staying at the forefront, or against failures frustrating its own workforce, it could shape the future of employment in the AI industry.
